The Strand
by Jet556
Summary: One-shot. A day at the beach for the Wily twins, Balor and Brigid.


**Welcome everyone. This is something I wrote while my internet was down. Enjoy and review.**

 _Strand: Literary noun; the shore of a sea, lake, or large river._

The Mumm-Ra War was over. Recently over! With Mumm-Ra gone, Third Earth could live again.

The sand of the beach was cool in the early morning. It would get hot later on and so Balor, Brigid and the Wily twins both looked out at the sea. Balor and Brigid, being Evabon, did not wear too much clothes. Balor's attire consisted of at the most a red loincloth meaning that he wore almost naught at all. He had worn a vest on some occasions and there were the arm and ankle-bands but truly Balor was most contented in almost naught at all.

Brigid's attire was not too different from Kit's save for being green in color and having a full skirt, a detachable skirt it must be noted thus if she wanted to swim all she needed to do was remove her skirt. Whether or not the similarity in attire was due to Cats having based some of their fashions on the Evabon fashions or vice versa it did not matter for Brigid's clan had been "civilized" by the Thunderans so whether she was an Evabon wearing the Thunderan fashion or simply wearing an Evabon fashion that had been a basis for a Thunderan fashion it did not matter. The earrings she was wearing was a new addition to her attire.

It should be noted that Brigid had a phobia of deep water. Before she had known Zuvowang, Balor, the ThunderCats, really any of the people who were now in her life she had lost a friend to drowning in deep water. Not knowing how to swim did not make things any better for her. She would go into water but the moment she realized it was up to her neck she got right out.

Kat had removed his shirt and rolled up his pant legs. Kit on the other hand had left her attire very much the same.

Everyone had eyes on different things. Balor's eyes were on the water, the heat of the previous day well on his mind and he knew full well that it would come back later in the day.

Kat's eyes were on a nearby island. In his heart was a desire to explore it.

Brigid's eyes were on a nice shaded spot where the water was shallow. It looked like a lovely place to sit with her legs in the water.

Kit's eyes were all over the shells that could be seen scattered across the strand. She would have a fine time collecting them.

With each of the four children with their sights set on something, they went their separate ways. Brigid immediately went for her shaded spot where the water was shallow. Resting her back against the tall tree that provided the shade, Brigid rested her legs in the water. Due to how shallow being fairly shallow, the water was warm. This was very nice indeed.

Closing her eyes and gently kicking her legs, Brigid let her head fill with so many thoughts. Espousals, festivals, dancing, so many happy things!

Then her thoughts were interrupted by something feeling her right leg. Brigid's eyes opened wide and she looked down to see a worm with tentacles. One of the tentacles was feeling her leg.

She let out a high-pitched scream and stood up. With her back against the tree, she quaked at the sight of the worm. Instinctively Balor, her arranged fiancé whom was fond of her and she was fond of, the Wily twins, her best friend and best friend's brother respectively, ran over to her. Balor had only been up to his waist in water, Kat had been looking for driftwood so he could just float to the island and Kit had found one seashell.

"Are you alright, Brigid?" asked Balor. If Brigid screamed in fear, he was naturally concerned. His expression soon changed to one that belonged to a person who has realized they have asked a stupid question. "I mean… What is it?"

"That!" Brigid pointed at the worm. The others immediately all just stared at the thing.

"What is that?" asked Kat, having never seen such a thing.

"It looks like a worm." Commented Kit.

"With arms." Added Balor. "Ten of them."

"Yes! It's a worm with ten arms! It touched my leg!" exclaimed Brigid, sounding not a little distressed.

Balor grabbed a nearby stick and knelt down to remove the worm. He got the stick close to the worm and the next thing he knew it had wrenched it from his grasp and hurled the stick at his head. "Ouch!" Balor rubbed his head and looked down at the worm. "Maybe you can find somewhere else."

"But this was the perfect spot!"

"Apparently he agrees." Whispered Kit.

Brigid could only stare in both anger and horror at the worm. This was her spot and that worm had come along to steal it! That horrid, horrid worm!

"Why don't you come and swim with me?" asked Balor.

"I can't swim."

"I can teach you like my sister taught me."

"What if the worm comes out to the open water?"

"I think he is just hanging out." Said Balor.

"Why don't you come and collect seashells with me, Brigid?" asked Kit. Balor gave Kit a cheerless look. Kit just shrugged in response.

"O-Okay, Kit."

Balor watched as Brigid and Kit walked off to collect seashells. He then looked to Kat and said: "I'm not happy with your sister right now."

"Relax, you can hang out with your girlfriend later."

"She is not my girlfriend. She is my arranged fiancée."

"Do you like her?"

"Yes."

"Does she like you?"

"Yes."

"Then she is your girlfriend." Kat had quite the way to look at things. While Balor used the technical term since he and Brigid were arranged to marry when they were older, they were fond of each other and Kat calling Brigid Balor's girlfriend was in some way accurate. "You want to take a look at that island?"

"Gard told us to stay on the mainland."

"He isn't my dad and he isn't yours."

"He might as well be. He shows more interest in me than my own father does. I'm his descendant on my mother's side so I guess in a way he is my father."

Kat rolled his eyes. "Are you coming or not?"

"No."

"Okay then, have fun swimming."

Collecting seashells was a complete mystery to Brigid. She really did not understand it but she didn't see anything wrong with it either. Using her skirt to carry the seashells, Brigid collected them with Kit. It was the discovery of one that looked frighteningly like the face of Mumm-Ra that caused Brigid to now understand why one would want to collect seashells. They could look like anything and if one of them looked like the face of the late Mumm-Ra himself then who knew what she would find.

As they collected seashells, Brigid thought things over in her head. Ever since the death of Kernunnos she had taken up wearing a veil and she was now considering coloring her curls either a bold blonde or a bold cerulean. Evabon women usually colored their curls a bold blonde or a bold cerulean and they preference started with whichever color they chose in their childhood. The problem was that since the Evabon veil was placed over the ears from the back of the head not all of Brigid's curls would be seen if she colored them so she wondered what the point was. She supposed it would have been similar to covering her body in damask chalk this day the chalk would have been washed off by the water.

"Kit? Do you think I should color my curls a bold blonde or a bold cerulean?" asked Brigid.

"I don't know, which color do you like better?" asked Kit.

"Blonde. I think that will be the color I will make my curls." Replied Brigid.

"Then why ask?"

"I have never colored my curls before. I wanted a friend's opinion before I made my decision."

The brooding strand was home to three species of crustaceans. There was the cartilage-abode at six inches in length, the cerulean-dark buckler at ten inches in length and the aerie-plunderer at four inches across. Cantankerous didn't even begin to describe their temperaments. If a crustacean sighted a person, they would charge with pincers ready to pinch.

Poor Kit. Poor Brigid. They had all three species of crustacean chasing them the moment Brigid had finished her sentence. From beneath rocks they came with claws ready to grab and immediately the two girls started running from the crustaceans, which chased after them.

Kat had tied to driftwood together with some seaweed. It might not have been the best raft but it was something. As soon as his screaming sister and her friend jumped onto the raft and it started floating away, Kat exclaimed: "Hey! That's mine!" Then the crustaceans started chasing Kat. Screaming, Kat ran up the tree that Brigid had been seating beneath earlier. He was quite literally a cat, or in this case: a Kat up a tree.

Balor himself had not been far away. In fact he had seen the whole thing. It was typical of crustaceans to switch to whatever was closest to them and in that case it was Kat. He then turned his attention to Brigid and Kit.

He swam up to the raft as it floated over to the nearby island. The first thing he said was: "Gard said to stay on the mainland."

"We were trying to get away from those things. We didn't get on here on purpose." Said Kit.

"So, Brigid… Swimming lessons?" asked Balor.

"I do not like deep water!" exclaimed Brigid. As long as she was on the raft, as far as she knew there was deep water beneath her.

"We don't have to start in deep water and it isn't deep here."

Brigid stood up on the shoddily made raft. "It is! It is! It is! It is!" The final time she said: "It is" she brought down her foot and the raft came apart. Down into the water Brigid and Kit went and the former discovered that the water was only up to her chest. "On second thought, swimming lessons would be fine."

 **The End**


End file.
